Method of producing dual message signs



April 1966 A. D. PARRY ETAL 3,247,005

METHOD OF PRODUCING DUAL MESSAGE SIGNS Filed Oct. 18, 1961 INVENTORS F G Allun D. Parry BY William H. Riley,J|:

ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,247,005 METHGD U1 PRODUCING DUAL MESSAGE SIGNS Allan D. Parry, East Freedom, and William H. Riley, Jr., Altoona, Pa., assignors to Prismo Safety Corporation, Huntingdon, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Oct. 18, 1961, Ser. No. 145,862 2 Claims. (Cl. 117--25) The present invention relates to signs and has particular reference to signs having a diiferent message visible under daylight conditions than that which is visible when a light shines on the sign at night.

With the present invention, it is possible to provide a sign which displays only the message relative to the time of the day at which it is observed, namely, the daylight hours, or alternatively, after dark.

Another advantage of the present invention resides in the fact that only one sign blank is used, with one message superimposed over another message.

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to providing a sign displaying two messages, one message being readable under daylight conditions, the other message being readable at night by reflected light.

Basically, the present invention provides a novel and improved sign wherein the daylight message is placed on a standard sign by conventional means and the message which is to be visible at night is then superimposed on the same plane, in a halftone, and highly reflective material is embedded in the halftone areas.

These as well as further advantages which are inherent in the invention will become apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, where'm:

FIG. 1 illustrates a sign of the present invention having day and night messages;

FIG. 2 shows a section of a screen used to space the reflective material;

FIG. 3 shows an enlarged view of a part of the sign of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 shows a greatly enlarged sectional view along line 4-4 of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 shows a view of a modified embodiment with dual night messages.

Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a sign for informing motorists of the posted speed limit. As illustrative of the use of the present invention, sign 10 is a dual message sign containing a day message 11 and a night message 12. For the day message 11, which is readable during the daylight hours, the letters and numerals are applied in a conventional manner such as, for example, a black enamel on a white background 13 applied by brush or stencil. A night message 12 is then applied over the day message 11 in such a manner so as not to interfere with the readability of the day message 11 during the daylight hours when only the day message 11 is to be seen and night message 12 should not be noticeable since its appearance will only be confusing to the reader. Automatically, the dual message sign displays its night message 12 during the time of darkness under the reflected light of automobile headlight beams or other artificial lighting.

A feature of the method of producing such a dual massage sign 14) as shown in FIG. 1 is a use of a principle employed by the ink printing trades in graduating tones in one color that is called halftone printing. The use of this principle with variations as explained below allow the production of this type of sign.

Day message 11 in this case is painted with a non-reflective black enamel. Through the use of a screen 21 of a type illustrated in FIG. 2 a binder 41 is applied to the sign 10 over the general area covered by day message 3,247,005 Patented Apr. 19, 1966 11 but in the form of the letters and numerals of night message 12. This binder 41 is applied on the surface of sign 10 by a halftone process. The positive image of letters and numerals as shown in the figures, or of other illustrations that may be desired, is applied to a conventional type of non-reflective sign by a photo silk screen method using a photographic stencil made with pattern material such as screen 21 in FIG. 2. This is cut to the shape of the letters or numerals making night message 12.

As shown in FIG. 3 and the greatly enlarged sectional view along line 4--4 in FIG. 4, the night message 12 is composed of binder 41 applied through screen 21 over both non-reflective material 42 and background 13 with the binder 41 then supporting or having embedded therein spheres 43' of high refractive index or having silvered backs, in a sufiicient quantity to override the non-reflective day message 11 when viewed at night under artificial lighting. The spheres 43 are added to binder 41 while binder 41 is still in a wet state, and are firmly held in place upon the drying of binder 41.

Also, in daylight the reflective spheres 43 must be nonapparent so as not to interfere with day message 11. This non-interference with day message 11 is made possible by the halftone nature of the night message 12, since night message 12 is in reality only a series of dots 31 of binder material 41 laden with spheres 43 placed in a pattern forming the desired letters and numerals. The dots 31 occupy only a percentage of the same area on which the non-reflective or day message 11 appears.

When viewed under night conditions from a distance, the series of sphere laden dots 31 appear to be a solid stroke or body of a numeral, letter or other illustration. Through the use of a screen 21 of different size openings the percentage of area covered by sphere laden dots 31 is varied thereby allowing the use of that percentage coverage by reflective spheres 43 that will allow optimum visibility of night message 11 at the distance desired. This method of producing a dual message sign may be extended further by the use of screens of several different size openings or graduated size openings so that different messages may become visible or reach their optimum visibility at successive distances from the sign. This is illustrated in FIG. 5 wherein the daylight message of SPEED LIMIT DAY 50 is as in the previous illustrations but the wording superimposed over the top section and reading REDUCE SPEED AT NIGHT is a finer graduated pattern 51 than the pattern 52 of the number 45 below it. The fine pattern 51 of the wording allows a higher level of reflection and more effective sighting and reading of that portion of the night sign at a greater distance from the sign. The coarser pattern 52 forming numeral 45 becomes effective at a shorter range from the sign and therefore is seen as a second night message as the sign is approached.

This invention should not be restricted only to the use of dots 31 since other patterns, such as a verticalstiple, may be better on certain occasions and may also be applied by the same halftone process means. Also, such patterns composed of squares, triangles, lines or bars may be used as long as the proportion of the pattern covering the sign allows a significant portion of the daylight message to be clearly readable.

It is thus apparent that by the method of making a sign disclosed herein a message that may be clearly read in daylight may have superimposed over it either one or a plurality of messages that may be read after dark under artificial reflected light with different messages reaching optimum visibility at different distances from the sign.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and therefore the invention is not limited specification but only as indicated in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A method of making a sign displaying a day message and a night message superimposed on the day message which comprises applying a day message against a background, one of said day message and background being relatively light reflective and the other relatively light absorbapplying binder material with discrete and spaced boundary portions in the overall form of the night message over said day message and said background so that in the daytime the day message and background between said discrete boundary portions are visible,

and embedding material of high refractive index in said binder material.

2. A method of making a sign displaying a day message and a night message superimposed on the day message which comprises applying a day message against a background, one of said day message and background being relatively light reflective and the other relatively light absorbapplying binder material with discrete and spaced boundary portions in the overall form of the night message over said day message and said background so that in the daytime the day message and background between said discrete boundary portions are visible,

and embedding silver backed transparent spheres in said binder material.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,579,249 4/1926 Russell 137 2,218,909 10/1940 Gill 117-21 2,334,112 11/1943 MacKinney 11725 2,411,222 11/1946 Meigs 40136 X 2,592,882 4/1952 Fisher et a1. 16l4 X 2,827,720 3/1958 Phillippi 40-l25 X 2,882,632 4/1959 Rockwell et a1 40135 OTHER REFERENCES Silk Screen Printing Process-Biegeleisen and Busenbark, McGraw Hill Book Co., 1941, Page 200.

JOSEPH B. SPENCER, Primary Examiner.

EDWARD V. BENHAM, RICHARD D. NEVIUS,

Examiners.

Dedication 3,247,005.Allan D. Parry, East Freedom, and William H. Riley, J12, Altoona, Pa. METHOD OF PRODUCING DUAL MESSAGE SIGNS. Patent dated Apr. 19, 1966. Dedication filed Apr. 13, 1976, by the assignee, Pm'smo Universal Corporation. Hereby dedicates t0 the Public the entire term of said patent.

[Ofiicial Gazette July 6', 1976.] 

1. A METHOD OF MAKING A SIGN DISPLAYING A DAY MESSAGE AND A NIGHT MESSAGE SUPERIMPOSED ON THE DAY MESSAGE WHICH COMPRISES APPLYING A DAY MESSAGE AGAINST A BACKGROUND, ONE OF SAID DAY MESSAGE AND BACKGROUND BEING RELATIVELY LIGHT REFLECTIVE AND THE OTHER RELATIVELY LIGHT ABOSORBING, APPLYING BINDER MATERIAL WITH DISCRETE AND SPACED BOUNDARY PORTIONS IN THE OVERALL FORM OF THE NIGHT MESSAGE OVER SAID DAY MESSAGE AND SAID BACKGROUND SO THAT IN THE DAYTIME THE DAY MESSAGE AND BACKGROUND BETWEEN SAID DICRETE BOUNDARY PORTIONS ARE VISIBLE, AND EMBEDDING MATERIAL OF HIGH REFRACTIVE INDEX IN SAID BINDER MATERIAL. 